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A SERMON 

DELIVERED IN 

TRINITY CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, 

ON THE 

DAY OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING, 

Appointed hy the President of the United States^ 
November 26, 1863. 



BY 

GEORGE UPFOLD, D. D., LL. D. 

BISHOP OF INDIANA. 



'g*n6fi$§(!6 aX f$e urgent soficifaiion of §t5 former parishioners. 



PITTSBURGH: 

PRINTED BY W. 8. HAVEN, OOENER OJ WOOD AND THIBD STREETS. 

18 6 4. 



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SERMON. 



" Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." 

1 Samuel 7U. 12. 

THERE had been a protracted war between the 
children of Israel and the Philistines, very 
disastrous to the former, in several instances; so 
much so as to discourage them greatly and " make 
them afraid of the Philistines." And " the children 
of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the 
Lord our God for us, that He will save us out of 
the hand of the Philistines." The humiliation of 
the people for their manifold transgressions, which 
had brought such severe national calamities upon 
them, with the deprecations and supplications of the 
prophet of God in their behalf, had propitiated the 
Divine favor. There was a signal change for the 
better in their national affairs ; their enemies were 
discomfited ; repeated victories had crowned their 
efforts in defense of their country, and they were at 



length in a position to enter on an offensive warfare 
and drive the invaders from their borders. " The 
Philistines were subdued, and came no more into the 
coasts of Israel." National humiliation and re- 
pentance had eifected their salutary purpose. God 
had heard the deprecatory cry of the people ; and 

they were now called by the prophet to offer a ser- 
vice of public thanksgiving for their deliverance. 
"Then Samuol took a stone, and set it between 
Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben- 
ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." 

These words, and the circumstances under which 
they were uttered, are suggestive of our duty, my 
brethren, under a similar manifestation of the 
Divine interposition in our behalf, as a people, in 
the present conflict with our enemies ; composed, 
alas ! not of strangers and foreigners, but of a por- 
tion of our misguided fellow-citizens, in rebellion 
against one of the mildest and most benign govern- 
ments the world has ever known ; a government 
which afforded them equal protection with others, in 
all their just civic rights and privileges, and against 
which, as one of their now prominent leaders pub- 
licly avowed when his State was debating the 
question of secession, they had no reasonable cause 



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for complaint of existing or apprehended oppres- 
sion. 

In April last, on the recommendation of the 
Chief Magistrate of the Republic, we humbled our- 
selves as a nation, under the chastisement of the 
Lord our God, whose displeasure we had justly 
incurred by our manifold national sins; who had 
" smitten us with the rod of His wrath," and had 
visited us with sudden and sore calamity. We 
besought Him who had " cast us off and scattered 
us — who had been displeased — who had made our 
portion of the"]earth to tremble — who had broken it 
so that it was shaken — who had showed us hard 
things, and made us to drink the wine of astonish- 
ment ;" we besought Him, in humiliation, fasting 
and prayer, " to turn himself to us again, and heal 
the breaches of the land He had made," save and 
deliver us. 

This national humiliation, which presented the 
sublime moral spectacle of a whole people bowing 
before the Majesty on High in penitential supplica- 
tion — acknowledging the Lord to be their God, and 
their entire dependence upon Him— invoking His 
forgiveness of past offenses and His gracious inter- 
position in their day of peril and distress ; this act 



6 

of homage, reverence, faith, penitence, and depreca 
tion of the righteous judgments of God, appeared 
to have met His acceptance, and to have accom- 
plished, to a large extent, its devout purpose and 
end. The dark clouds which overspread the political 
horizon at the time, filling every loyal heart with 
dismay and apprehension, were soon after measur- 
ably dispelled by several signal victories ; two of 
which, of simultaneous occurrence, Grettysburg and 
Vicksburg in particular, appeared then, and still 
appear, to have broken the back of this unnatural, 
unprovoked and utterly indefensible rebellion, and 
have since been followed by the general success of 
the efforts of the Federal arms in its suppression, 
amid some reverses which, in such a gigantic con- 
flict as this in which we are now involved, might 
well have been expected ; and a progressive and 
sure advancement of the glorious cause of our Fed- 
erative Union. Other triumphs of magnitude have 
succeeded these, all pointing to a not very remote 
issue of the struggle that has been forced upon us, 
and which I have never for a moment doubted ; the 
re-establishment of the authority of the National 
Grovernment over every State in rebellion; the 
restoration of our once united, peaceful and pros- 



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perous country to its former enviable condition ; 
and its continuous advance in all that constitutes 
the true greatness of a nation, making it more and 
more " a praise and glory in the earth." 

Now again, on the very proper recommendation 
of the President of the United States, we are 
assembled to offer another offering of national 
homage to the Almighty Ruler of nations, and pre- 
sent the oblation of our thanksgiving and praise for 
the great and manifold mercies of His providence, 
in the safe and abundant ingathering of the fruits 
of the earth, which have been continued to us ; and 
especially for His gracious interposition in our 
political affairs, and the signal success which has 
attended the efforts of our armies and fleets. We 
are met together, in common with our fellow-citizens 
in every part of the country faithful to the Union, 
"to set up," as we have abundant cause, our "stone" 
of grateful recognition and remembrance of the 
Divine goodness, and *' call it Ebenezer," and with 
devout and thankful hearts, say, what is eminently 
true, and what, if we refused to say, we should be 
utterly insensible to our mercies and recreant to 
our correspondent obligations, " Hitherto hath the 
Lord helped us." 



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I. Our thanksgiving and praise as a people, are 
due to the Lord who hath helped us, for the con- 
tinued and multiplied blessings of His providence, 
in the abundance of the fruits of the earth ; in the 
preservation of general health ; in exemption from 
devastating pestilence and famine ; and for all that 
constitutes temporal prosperity. In some portions 
of the country, it is true, there has been a partial 
failure of crops, but that is more than compensated 
by the superabundance in other portions, and of 
other material products of the earth. The cost of 
living has, indeed, materially advanced; yet the 
ability to meet this increased expense has generally, 
and with most classes of the people, advanced with 
it. Every industrial pursuit is eminently prosper- 
ous, and yields a remunerative return. Commerce, 
internal and external, foreign and domestic, is 
generally flourishing, as are also the various manu- 
facturing interests. There seems no lack of em- 
ployment for capital and labor, and no want of 
adequate compensation. Agricultural pursuits par- 
take of the general prosperousness. In a word, 
God, in His providential goodness, hath blessed and 
is blessing us abundantly everywhere, throughout 
the length and breadth of the land not involved in 



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the rebellion, or that hath been rescued from the 
tyranny and oppression of its instigators and 
leaders. 

My official position obliges me to travel much and 
extensively, and wherever I go, T discern evidences 
of more than ordinary prosperity and increasing 
wealth and strength. Except the presence of sol- 
diers passing to and fro, the display of arms, and 
strains of martial music, there are no indications 
that the country is involved in war, and in a war of 
such unprecedented magnitude. In the West, in 
the East, and in the North — and I have traveled 
extensively in each portion during several months 
past — there is no apparent destitution and distress, 
but great apparent and, it is believed, real prosper- 
ity. All the States faithful to the Union, em- 
bracing what is known by the general term of 
the North, in contradistinction to the aggressive 
South, have become stronger than ever, in all the 
elements of national strength, by the war which has 
been forced upon it ; and is developing still more its 
immense resources. Truly, amid our national 
troubles^ and under all the attendant calamities of 
war, " The Lord hath hitherto helped us" signally, 
and continues to help us in all material prosperous- 



10 

ness; and for these, His abounding providential 
mercies, we are bound to offer unto Him the sacri- 
fice of our devout thanksgiving, and show forth His 
praise with grateful gladness. 

II. In the internecine conflict which has been 
raging for nearly three years past — a conflict initiated 
by no fault or act of the Government of the Union 
toward the aggressors, who, in their pride, arrogance 
and unhaUowed ambition, have forced it upon the 
nation — we have abundant cause to set up '*a stone" 
of grateful remembrance, and " call the name of it 
Ebenezer," and with all devout and fervent thank- 
fulness say, " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." 
In every [phase of the tremendous struggle, the 
Divine interposition in our behalf has been strikingly 
manifested ; and in its results thus far we have been 
constantly gaining, while our opponents have been 
as constantly losing. The entire sea coast, from the 
capes of Virginia to the Grulf of Mexico, is in our 
possession or under our control. The Mississippi is 
ours, from its source to its mouth, and its free navi- 
gation regained, never again to be surrendered, if it 
costs the last drop of blood of the men of the West 
and Northwest, and the last cent of treasure. That 



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natural outlet to the products of their immense and 
fertile domain, they will contend for to the bitter 
end. No proposition of compromise, no proposal 
of treaty arrangement, no allowance and permission 
of adverse governments on its banks, to navigate it 
under restricted conditions, will ever be listened to 
and admitted. Its entire freedom they hold to be 
their just right, a right which they will never con- 
cede. There is no danger, however, that they will 
be called upon to make such a concession now. 
The free navigation of the Mississippi, through the 
successful efforts of our gallant army and navy, is a 
fixed fact — a gain of magnitude which will never be 
relinquished ; and the equally free navigation of all 
its tributaries, most of them now under the control 
of the Federal power, is destined ere long to follow. 
There have been reverses. They were to have 
been expected in a contest of such magnitude and 
so suddenly sprung upon the country ; and whether 
they have arisen from m.isconduct, or from the 
usual hazards of war, they have not arrested the 
progress of our arms to any extent, or impaired the 
power of the nation ; nor will they change or much 
retard the inevitable issue. Notwithstanding these 
reverses, the Government of the Union has been 



12 

constantly regaining and maintaining its legitimate 
authority ; the righteous cause has been and is 
steadily advancing, and it will go on conquering 
and to conquer, even if other and more serious 
reverses should be experienced, unto the consumma- 
tion, in an honorable and permanent peace, and 
restored and stronger unity than ever, throughout 
our glorious Republic. " Hitherto hath the Lord 
helped us," and if we are only true and faithful to 
Him, and true and faithful, in subordination to 
Him, to the Government which affords us its protec- 
tion and demands our allegiance and cordial sup- 
port^ He will help us all the way. 

I am no partisan, as you well know, my brethren 
and former parishioners. I have no political pre- 
dilections to pervert my judgment, no fond abstrac- 
tions to distract my vision. I am an American 
citizen ; it is a name to be proud of, and now more 
than ever ; I owe a paramount allegiance to the 
Republic and its constitutional Government;, and 
not to the particular State in which I reside. My 
position is such that I am enabled to take an 
unprejudiced and comprehensive view of the condi- 
tion of our national affairs, and to form an unbiassed 
judgment of the past, and equally unbiassed concep- 



13 

tions of the future from the past. The cause for 
which we are contending is a just, righteous and 
noble cause: the maintenance of our Federative 
Union in its integrity; the preservation of the 
precious heritage of civil and religious liberty be- 
queathed us by our fathers, and purchased and 
cemented with their blood. It is a cause I believe 
GFod will, as to my mind He certainly has hitherto^ 
prosper and bless, overruling the present conflict 
for our highest national welfare. In the darkest 
hours and most disastrous events of the struggle, I 
have never despaired of the Republic ; nor have I 
ever lost confidence in the Government, or in its abil- 
ity to re-establish its constitutional authority, where 
that authority is now repudiated. It has manifested 
in all respects, honesty of purpose and patriotic 
devotion to the true interests of the country, and for 
these I honor it and regard it deserving the confi- 
dence and support of the people. If it has erred 
and made mistakes, they have been errors of judg- 
ment ', and in such an unprecedented conflict, with 
so many and perplexing complications, and with 
such a tension of mental powers, demand commis- 
seration and allowance, instead of reproach and 
croaking anticipations of disaster and ruin. What 



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if our army and navy appear inactive, when we at 
a distance, and necessarily unacquainted with the 
obstacles and difficulties in the way, think they 
should be moving and fighting ? There is such a 
thing as "masterly inactivity," and this has proved 
to be the case in many instances where complaint 
has been made that nothing is doing, and sensation 
mongers have had no sanguinary battles to chatter 
about and no sacrifice of precious human lives to 
gloat over. If it be asked, as it has been asked of 
me, in a spirit of querulous complaint, " When will 
this terrible war cease?" I have answered: When 
it pleases God; when His judgments on us as a 
nation have accomplished their salutary, reforma- 
tory purpose ; when His work, in permitting the 
conflict for wise and gracious purposes of His 
providence, is worked out. It may be months ; it 
may be years. In the war of the Revolution it was 
full seven years, and amid reverses and disasters 
far more discouraging and appalling than any we 
have yet experienced in the present struggle. He, 
our Lord and our God, who helped us then, who 
has helped us in comparative lesser conflicts and 
difficulties since, and who has manifestly helped us 
hitherto in the present contest, will help us unto the 
end, be that end near or remote. 



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III. As citizens of Pennsylvania, my brethren 
and friends, you have special cause for gratitude to 
God for His gracious interposition. Only a few 
months past you were in imminent peril. A ruth- 
less foe had invaded your soil, sought to bring the 
sad calamities of war to your homes, and threatened 
extensive devastation. This busy, industrious, 
prosperous city was in danger ; almost every im- 
portant point, including the capital of the State and 
its great commercial emporium, were in danger; 
and from day to day, and hour to hour, no one knew, 
no one could conjecture where the disastrous blow 
would fall. The devastation which has made the 
larger part of Eastern Virginia a desolate waste, 
through the insane pride and folly of its own citizens, 
was to be visited on the flourishing cities and towns, 
and the fertile fields of Pennsylvania; and the 
threat seemed likely to be carried into effect to an 
alarming extent. But God, in His goodness and 
mercy, interposed, and made the threat very much 
an empty boast ; not, however, without the sacrifice 
of thousands of valuable lives on the battle field, 
among them hundreds of your own patriotic and 
gallant sons. The invaders, after a sanguinary 
contest of three days continuance, were driven in 



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disastrous defeat from your borders ; and your 
State was delivered from merciless foes, burning to 
revenge on you and yours the calamities and suifer- 
ings they had recklessly and madly brought on 
themselves. Surely you, above all others, have 
cause to be thankful ; to *'set up a stone" in grateful 
remembrance of your deliverance, and "call the 
name of it Ebenezer," and with the most fervent 
gratitude and thankfulness, say, " Hitherto hath the 
Lord helped us." 

This city was a prominent point aimed at by the 
enemy, from its immense stores of all the materials 
of war and its commanding position in relation to 
water and rail road communication ; and success 
elsewhere would soon have brought an invading 
army here. Need I attempt to depict your condi- 
tion had the rebel army penetrated to this place, 
to excite your gratitude to God for your exemption 
from such a calamity? It can all be readily 
imagined. Had the rebel army failed to capture 
this great military depot — and I never believed 
they could succeed — the attempt itself would have 
been disastrous and have caused great suffering. 
It would have paralyzed business, and every in- 
dustrial pursuit which is ministering so much to 



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your prosperity. It might have cost the loss of 
many valuable lives among your citizens. It might 
have resulted in material and serious damage to 
your property. But God, in His goodness, spared 
you even an approach to such an infliction; and for 
this, His gracious interposition, you are specially 
bound to praise and magnify his great and glorious 
name. 

You, however, are not alone in experience of the 
Divine goodness. The entire State is deeply in- 
volved in this indebtedness of gratitude ; nay, our 
whole country ; that portion — and it is far the 
largest portion — that is faithful to the Union. For 
the contest hitherto has worked nothing to the 
l^ermanent advantage of those who are in rebellion. 
The victories they boastingly claim, have been bar- 
ren in fruit ; even those in which, by an overwhelm- 
ing array of numbers on a particular point, they 
have been temporarily successful. The victories of 
the Federal armies, on the contrary, have all result- 
ed in material and permanent advantage ; what has 
been gained has been retained, until portion after 
portion of territory in rebellion has been emanci- 
pated from the oppression of the usurping rulers, 
and reinstated under the honored flag of our 
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country. Truly, "hitherto hath the Lord helped 
us" in this fearful struggle. 

Do any doubt this? Let them cast their eyes 
backward over the events of the past three years,, 
or nearly three years, and contrast the condition 
of our national affairs then, and since, and now. 
Beginning with the interior : there is Western 
Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee entirely 
freed from rebel domination ; Arkansas in a large 
proportion ; Mississippi to a considerable extent,, 
and in that which is most important, the banks of 
the river and the cities on her banks ; Louisiana 
in a still larger proportion, including its great 
commercial emporium, New Orleans, with all its 
outlets to the ocean \ Florida in every part of any 
consequence ; and Texas, in the recent occupation 
of positions on the Rio Grande by our army, in a 
way to make the submission of the entire State, 
and its restoration to the authority of the general 
Government, only a question of time, and that, to 
all appearance, a brief time. Then look at the 
Atlantic border i there is the immense naval depot 
at Norfolk, and a large tract of country adjacent^, 
blocking all egress of the enemy to the ocean, in 
recovered possession of the Federal authoritieSy 



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with all the leading communications into the South- 
eA States on the sea-board ; there is the entire 
coast of T^orth Carolina, and a considerable j)ortion 
of its interior ; there is Port Royal and Beaufort, 
trophies of the heroism and skill of our gallant 
navy, in connexion with a part of our equally 
heroic army ; there are also the approaches to 
Savannah, with the whole sea-coast and islands 
of Georgia, and the sea- board of Florida, with 
< much of its interior. Charleston, the original hot- 
bed of sedition, where the Qg^ of rebellion was 
incubated, still flaunts the rebel flag; but its most 
important fortifications are demolished, the city 
itself reached by the shells of our artillery, rapidly 
approaching its deserved fate, and already rendered 
utterly useless to the rebel cause. 

Then consider what the aggressors have gained. 
Is it territory ? You cannot find it. They do not 
hold even what they claimed as their own ; it has 
been gradually wrested from their grasp. Is it 
foreign intervention and aid ? This they have dili- 
gently sought, through manifold and gross misrep- 
resentations and vainglorious boasting, but have 
not obtained it ; and now it appears farther off than 
ever, and despite the supposed supremacy of influ- 



20 

ence of King Cotton, is fast becoming the myth it 
1 as always seemed to me to be. Is it the respect^ 
the sympathy, the contidenco of the nations of the 
earth, with any approach to recognition as an inde- 
pendent nation ? There is nothing of the kind. 
Then what have the^^ gained by the unnatural and 
cruel strife they have originated, and this wanton 
expenditure of blood and treasure ? jN^othing ; 
literally nothing but poverty and devastation to 
themselves, and occasional revenge in guerrilla war- 
fare on land and piratical warfare on the ocean. 

All this time, the Government of the Union has 
remained intact and in full maintenance of its 
strength and power. Thousands of valuable lives 
have been sacrificed on the battle-field, and through 
unexampled cruel and merciless treatment in rebel 
prisons ; but they have not been sacrificed in vain. 
Immense treasure has been expended, but it has 
not impoverished the country, nor impaired the 
patriotic liberality of our citizens in meeting the 
exigencies and supplying the sinews of war; and 
that portion of the land which has not been the 
immediate arena of conflict, has been signally 
enriched and prospered. While European nations 
have looked with astonishment at the struggle, 



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some of them \sath friendly concern, and all with 
absorbing interest — those most disposed to sympa- 
thize with and indirectly aid the aggressors, with- 
out compromising their professed neutrality, have 
at length decided to be strictly neutral, from a 
wholesome apprehension of the constantly devel- 
oped strength of the nation. All are satisfied that 
the United States is a power not to be despised and 
trifled with, but respected and feared, even amid the 
most stupendous internecine conflict the world has 
ever known. 

Now all this, brethren and friends, is simple 
truth, which any one, who attentively contem- 
plates the past of this contest, and takes a compre- 
hensive view of it and of its results thus far, cannot 
fail to perceJ^'^e, verify and appreciate, i^nd to 
whom is all this success to be attributed ? Not to 
ourselves, nor to our descrvings. ''Hitherto hath 
the Lord helped us." God, in His abounding 
goodness and mercy, and overruling providential 
interposition, has done all this for us, and for our 
country ; and the sentiment of every heart should 
be grateful, thankful recognition ; "Not unto us, O 
Lord, not unto us ; but unto thy name be all the 
glory and all the praise." 



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The gratitude demanded of us, however, is not 
that of mere emotional fervor and words of thank- 
fulness. It must be the practical gratitude of our 
lives, involving continued and increasing patriotic 
devotedness to our country, and to the Grovernment 
which constitutionally governs it, and directs and 
controls its affairs, civil and military; and a firm, 
undeviating support of it in the present contest 
unto the end. Above all, it must be manifested 
in the abandonment of the national sins, which 
have incurred the just displeasure of Almighty 
God, and have brought this calamity upon us ; and 
in renewed allegiance to Him, in all th6 obedience 
of faith, as the God of grace, from whom cometh 
our spiritual deliverance and salvation ; as well as 
the God of providence, who hath interposed for our 
temporal success and defense. It is only in propor- 
tion as we endeavor to serve Him, our Father and 
Redeemer, with true hearts fervently, at the same 
time being true to our country and its cause, that 
we can reasonably hope for the continuance of His 
favor, individually and collectively. The national 
heart needs not only to be fired with true patriot- 
ism, but inspired with the love of God in Christ, 
manifested in all holy obedience to His demands 



23 

upon us as a people, to secure His grace and good- 
ness. "Our help is in the name of the Lord, who 
hath made heaven and earth." He alone can suc- 
cor ; He alone can defend ; He alone can give suc- 
cess to our efforts for the suppression of this 
unprovoked rebellion, the renewal of national unity 
and concord, and an honorable and permanent 
peace. Our sacrifice and oblation of praise and '-. 
thanksgiving, on the present occasion, for which we 
have such signal and abundant cause, must be a 
heart-felt offering, and be practically exemplified, 
or it be will not only worthless, but a mockery of 
the Lord our God^ who hath "helped us hitherto." 
Let me say, then, in conclusion, what I have 
said substantially on another occasion, in my own 
diocese, and have published, for it is apposite and 
to the point : Let us honor Grod in our families, and 
in the domestic and social circle ; fearing Him our- 
selves, with all filial, reverential fear ; and teaching 
our families, our children and dependents, by exam- 
ple and precept both, to fear, reverence and serve 
Him. Thus only may we, as a people whom He 
hath eminently blessed — still blesses beyond our 
deservings — look to Him to continue to bless, in 
delivering us from our present national calamity, 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



24 ® ®^2 "^64 593 2 

causing this devastating civil war to cease, and 
restoring peace and prosperity. Thus- only may we 
expect His continued intervention in restraining 
the "madness of the people" who have originated, 
and are bent on perpetuating, this internecine con- 
flict; and give success to our armies in the field and 
our naval armament on the waters^ Thus only 
may we anticipate the day — which may God in His 
mercy hasten — when, with glad and grateful hearts, 
we may assemble as a nation, to offer our thanks- 
giving and praise for the cessation and extinction of 
this unnatural strife of brother with brother; see 
our country once more united in bonds of mutual 
amity and concord ; and the North and the South, 
the East and the West, rallying, as heretofore, as 
one man, a Macedonian phalanx, foot to foot, and 
shoulder to shoulder, in repelling foreign aggres- 
sion, from whatever quarter it m.ay come ; and in 
defense of that glorious national flagf^ the Stars and 
Stripes, under which, as an a3gis, we have formerly 
battled together and conquered, against fearful 
odds, and advanced, from an inauspicious begin- 
ning, to an exalted and powerful position as a 
nation, and unexampled national grewth, strength 
and glory. Amen. 



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